Once, there was an eleven-year-old girl in Costa Rica. Thin as a feather, short-haired, in dire need of braces, and far sided. Not long ago, that little girl dreamed of becoming an astronaut; not because she wanted to be a scientist, but because she wanted to go places. At night, she’ll dream that she could fly high up, in between mountains and valleys, as fast as she wanted, to unimaginable places. Reality, however, was much different. As a daughter of a single mother, this child could only watch on TV what she wanted to do and the places she wanted to visit. Even if she traveled it wasn’t enough; she wanted to meet the people in each place, learn from them, and be part of their experience. This little girl also started to do something that came naturally to her; to write. She became obsessed with writing to the point where she would write a poem a day, short stories, essays. Secretly, she would be happy to see her English teacher come inside her classroom. She would wait anxiously for her homework assignment.
That little girl is a woman now. That little girl is me. Against all odds, I have fulfilled my dream of traveling and living amongst different people. These experiences have shaped the way I see the world -and believe me- is clearer than before. It has shown me the strengths of communities, but also that we’re similar. We channel emotions a bit differently, but in the end, they are the same emotions. We all feel so unrelated, so unique, but we’re not. I intend to write about these experiences to show you that, regardless of how isolated you feel in your thoughts and feelings, we can learn from one another.
There’s an artist in me, as I’m sure, in every single person on this earth. That artist wants to express herself and see to the world; but how refreshing it is when the world is the one to show me instead! So please join me in my quest to write about my experiences, the places I visited, and the visuals portrayed in my mind. Join me in learning from communities, on how they live and enjoy life, on how we can learn from each one of them. Why? Because the cure to this world’s division is a celebration of different points of view, not because we’re going to think the same way, but because we all have something meaningful to share.
